Chapter 98
Chapter 98
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: Memento Mori Main Force Captain Ridak
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Memento Mori main force captain Ridak.
He had been a cursed child from the moment he was born.
His only mother died giving birth to him.
Fortunately, he survived and was born healthy.
His father, struck by illness when he was one, died in a carriage accident on the way to take him somewhere.
Fortunately, he survived that time too, and people found him, rushing him to a hospital.
The uncle who took him in was robbed and killed on his way home from collecting his wages.
His cousin, seven years older, spat hatred at him, calling him a cursed child, and took his own life the next day.
And such tragedies repeated after that.
Misfortune shadowed everywhere Ridak went.
Most of those around him died or met with accidents.
And Ridak himself couldn't stay completely detached from that misfortune.
Misfortune piled up gradually in his body.
And ironically, the accumulated misfortune made him stronger.
For every misfortune that came, he gained an even greater opportunity.
The greatest opportunity came on the day his face was torn to shreds.
It was his encounter with the Armored King.
Ridak, the cursed child whose misfortune even Calamities couldn't swallow.
That was the man standing before Havel now.
"Looks like another misfortune has befallen you."
Ridak, who had sent the twins and the explosive horse into the shadows, rose to his feet.
Another misfortune had appeared before his eyes.
Perhaps this time, it was one he had summoned himself.
But the monster there surpassed anything he had anticipated.
"Hmm?"
Havel stroked his chin at Ridak's reaction.
Ridak wasn't wary of how Havel had defeated the twins and the explosive horse.
He felt intimidation not from Havel's actions, but from his very presence.
This fact struck Havel as quite novel.
After all, few people had ever gauged his level at a glance like this.
"Worthy of being called captain, huh."
In other words, Ridak was a considerable powerhouse.
But to Havel, that was irrelevant.
"You sent the Memento Mori members to the Crow Kingdom, planning to use them to clear this floor, right?"
Havel pierced right to the heart of their strategy, having roughly pieced it together.
If Havel was beyond what they could handle, clear the floor.
Then move to the next floor and bide their time.
That was the Memento Mori strategy as Havel saw it.
Naturally, reality wasn't much different.
As Havel thought, Memento Mori had considered clearing the floor from the start.
With their plan partially exposed, Ridak looked at Havel.
'If it's a problem we can't handle.'
They would shift to the next floor with the Five Great Families and sow chaos.
However, there was one fact even Havel didn't know.
Havel had ascended by exerting influence on each floor.
Because of that, the entire 7th Hierarchy revolved around him.
Memento Mori had studied the structure of the 7th Hierarchy in their own way.
And in that process, they realized one thing.
'The endpoint of the 7th Hierarchy, floor 79, will surely.'
Be cleared based on influence from all previous floors.
So if Havel kept advancing triumphantly like this.
Naturally, the final floor of the 7th Hierarchy couldn't be cleared without his influence.
Of course, neither Memento Mori nor the Five Great Families wanted that.
Thus, Memento Mori had prepared one more strategy.
Have Havel clear a floor without exerting any influence.
That would reset his influence.
That was Memento Mori's true goal this time.
"I'm not really into chit-chat."
But Ridak didn't confirm Havel's words as correct.
'The truth doesn't matter. Everything is in progress anyway.'
Ridak had recently made a deal with two entities in place of the Armored King.
The Whisperer.
God's Venom.
Those climbing toward the summit for their own goals.
The Armored King called them this.
Demons who feed on Calamities.
They all sought the Tower, one of the Primordial Three Calamities.
Their end goals differed, but the Tower was part of the path for each.
Thus, the Armored King proposed a deal.
Havel, who would usher in a new era.
The Five Great Families climbing the Tower at will.
A deal to prevent handing the Tower to them.
'But both clearly showed reluctance.'
Yet the Whisperer and God's Venom didn't accept readily.
The person they were wary of was none other than that man: Havel.
A man two demons hesitated to cooperate against.
Wondering just how formidable he must be.
Ridak finally understood upon seeing him with his own eyes.
'A monster.'
Ridak was hypersensitive to approaching misfortune.
And his misfortune sensor was screaming intensely.
The misfortune before him couldn't be overcome by any opportunity.
'Which is why, all the more.'
Ridak felt he had to bind this man to the 7th Hierarchy.
The Whisperer and God's Venom would surely try to ally with Havel in their own ways.
Because they coveted his power.
But they knew too.
A man like Havel was too big for them to harbor.
'Then the solution is simple.'
If you can't harbor it, shatter it.
That was their longstanding philosophy.
'I can't stop him today.'
The Whisperer and God's Venom would ultimately move their true forces to the Tower as well.
They wouldn't want Havel clearing it either.
'I've laid the bait.'
Those following would ruin the floor using the 7th Hierarchy's traits.
That way, they could bind Havel to the end of the 7th Hierarchy.
Since clearing depended on prior floor influence.
So his remaining task was one.
Until the other Memento Mori members cleared the floor.
'Bind this guy.'
Blood-red glow leaked from the hollows of Ridak's eyes, resolved to embrace misfortune.
"Instead of talk, let's settle this another way."
Ridak's bracelet began to spin.
The Calamity emanating from it scattered an extraordinary aura.
It was unmistakably a look of resolve.
"Don't think about dodging."
Ridak's foot slammed the ground.
Baria's figure reflected in the rippling shadows.
"If you do, this one's life is forfeit."
Havel stared silently at Baria in the shadow.
"Hmm?"
Then he pressed his chin, tilting his head slightly.
"Aren't you guys misunderstanding something?"
Havel found the situation rather amusing.
Ridak had taken Baria hostage.
After all, Havel had moved because of Baria's mention.
Plus, intel said Havel had traveled with Baria before.
Naturally, they deemed him valuable as a hostage.
However, as Havel said, they were mistaken on one key point.
"Sure, I kept him around because he was somewhat competent."
Havel looked at Baria with mild regret, showing no strong emotion.
And seeing that reaction, Ridak's expression shifted moment by moment.
He sensed no strong intent from Havel's words to rescue Baria.
"Wait."
The moment Ridak sensed danger if Havel continued.
"He's not someone I'd risk my neck to save."
Havel's words didn't stop, spilling out as is.
Ridak's body froze stiff.
Havel's words carried his true feelings.
To him, it was obvious.
Anyone connected to Banpellyon might be different.
But Baria had chosen to follow Havel himself.
Of course, Havel had treated him accordingly for doing so.
He even planned to rescue Baria while checking on Memento Mori.
But that was only if Havel didn't have to take risks.
"Back then, I lived recklessly, so I'd jump in to save people in situations like this."
Havel recalled those frustrating old days and clutched the back of his neck.
"Not so much now."
If Baria died, it'd be a shame, but that's all.
Emotions worn thin from surviving the Demonic Palace.
He wouldn't burn with newfound passion to save the unjustly trapped now.
That fire had long since burned out.
"That said."
Havel cracked his neck.
Separate from that, another emotion stirred.
"Talk of binding me does piss me off quite a bit."
A sword was suddenly in Havel's hand as he flexed his neck.
The moment Ridak belatedly noticed and raised his bracelet.
Clang!
With a clash against the bracelet, Ridak launched into the air.
His eyes wavered.
He hadn't seen that strike with his own two eyes.
Instinctive danger rang alarms in his body.
As he hastily righted himself, Havel was already before him.
"Like I said earlier?"
Havel's sword plunged toward Ridak's chest in an instant.
"Let's trade blows."
Boom!
With an explosive sound, Ridak crashed into the ground.
His chest, which should have been pierced by the sword.
Was covered in red iron plating.
Red orichalcum mail, forged only from eternal snowfields.
Mail whose hardness could be freely adjusted with aura.
But that red orichalcum mail was dented inward.
"Kuhk!"
The pain was intense.
It felt like his chest was ripped open, internals damaged.
Hard enough to withstand large-scale magic, yet this impact.
He felt anew how absurd the monster before him was.
Greeee!
But precisely because of that, the situation wasn't entirely dire.
'The hostage I caught turns out useless. Misfortune again today.'
With the hostage worthless.
A monster charging in, and he had to buy time against it.
Havel's sword lunged for his chest again.
He countered instantly with a fist wrapped in red orichalcum mail.
But it was futile against Havel's sword.
Clang!
His deflected arm twisted to the opposite side.
A bit less power, and it would've been severed.
Gnashing his exposed teeth amid the searing pain, Ridak smacked Havel's sword away with his other arm somehow.
He blocked the slash to his chest.
Crack!
In that instant, Ridak's head snapped back.
"Kuhk?!"
His eyes wavered again.
He hadn't seen the attack.
Yet a shock from his jaw was shaking his brain.
'Even pure hand-to-hand, I'm being overwhelmed?'
Blood trickled from between his teeth, likely from biting his tongue on impact.
But Havel's sword wouldn't pause for his daze.
The next thrust sliced his side.
Had he not twisted barely in time, it would've been a piercing wound.
The problem: in that state, his side took a hit from the sword's grip.
His body bent grotesquely, launching into the air.
Havel's sword was utterly bizarre.
Just when he thought he'd tracked it visually, it blurred like an afterimage.
And suddenly, it burrowed in, relentlessly striking vitals.
No matter how he chased, it danced as an illusion.
The essence of Dawn Swordsmanship.
"Kuh!"
Feeling he couldn't take more wounds, he slammed the ground.
Shadows surged up, exploding the floor into dust.
Seizing that brief gap, Ridak retreated.
Blood streamed from wounds all over his body.
Heavy bleeding clouded his mind.
Havel reflected in his eyes.
'Even monsters have limits.'
Unlike Ridak, not a single scratch, pristine.
Approaching with sword dangling, he resembled the Grim Reaper.
'This crosses the line.'
Ridak's heart pounded wildly.
Death loomed in an instant.
Death was the greatest misfortune for any living being.
Misfortune piled steadily in his body.
His red bracelet spun even faster.
As mentioned, Ridak was the unfortunate cursed child.
He'd carried misfortune his whole life, unable to escape it.
But Ridak was strong against misfortune.
Especially the bracelet on his wrist.
The Calamity Armament he'd received through the Armored King.
Miserria, the armament bracelet that devours misfortune.
The greater the misfortune, the stronger the power Miserria granted him.
Shadows surged from beneath his feet, following Miserria's red glow.
Boom!
Jet-black lightning crackled upward.
Simultaneously, surging shadows enveloped Ridak.
Ridak's body began to transform with it.
Havel retreated to evade the rapidly expanding shadow.
A massive shadow giant slowly rose.
Between joints in its pitch-black armor.
Red lights poured out.
Its skull head and thorny armor looked ferocious just to behold.
Shadow giant formed with Ridak as the core medium.
Ridak felt an unprecedented surge of power.
The power Miserria granted by devouring misfortune.
Jet-black smoke billowed from the shadow giant's mouth.
The surrounding air shifted.
Ferocious energy poured from Ridak's body, corroding the area.
"Thanks. Now we can fight properly."
But why?
Havel, gazing steadily up at Ridak, suddenly turned his head slowly aside.
Ridak's presence had grown to another dimension from before.
The Calamity pouring from him was so potent.
Barutuga, who fled fearing entanglement, might've fainted under its pressure.
Yet Havel ignored Ridak entirely, sensing something else.
'It's starting.'
Beyond the mountains guarding Phileo Kingdom like a natural fortress.
Something greater than misfortune-devouring, empowered Ridak writhed.
Thud!
On those mountains, a colossal something stealthily poked its head out.
Above the sun setting toward the mountains.
A pitch-black crow head dangled there.
The problem: it wasn't just one or two heads.
Thousands of heads densely protruded from beyond the mountains.
Heads massive enough to fill the range.
Havel gazed up at the sight impassively.
Ridak's head turned belatedly that way.
Ridak's face hardened, bewilderment in his eyes.